History

Refine Search

Where did the Reformation begin?

These leaders argued that there needed to be a new political distribution of power and that there needed to be a new religious distribution of power. This distribution would go on to trigger wars, persecutions and the Catholic Church's response to the Protestants known as the Counter-Reformation.Historians say that the Protestant Reformation began in 1517 with Luther's "95 Theses" and did not end until either 1555 with the Peace of Augsburg or 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia, depending on which historian a person speaks with. The idea behind the Reformation was to purify the churc..

Continue Reading

Why did the colonists dislike the Stamp Act?

The Stamp Act was passed by the British government without the approval of the American colonies, and few colonists felt they had legislative recourse. The new legislature required them to pay a tax, or stamp duty, of between 2 pence and upwards of 6 pounds on every single piece of printed paper used. This included ships' papers, legal documents, newspapers and playing cards.The act was essentially an attempt by the British to assert control over the American colonies. It was especially important as a means to recover losses after the Seven Years War, during which time the national debt ..

Continue Reading

What did Sir James Dewar invent?

Dewar's invention was not intended for commercial use, but to help in his scientific work with liquid gases. The container was made with one flask inside another with a vacuum separating the two to minimize heat transfer. Several years later, two Germans used Dewar's prototype to make a commercial thermos, which they named from the Greek word "therme," which means "hot."

Continue Reading

What are some examples of late 1800s technology?

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. Telephones were first run with switching services enabling telephones to connect with one another. Thomas Edison trademarked his ideas for a motion picture device in 1891. His invention was called the kinetoscope and had the ability to record and produce objects in motion. The modern typewriter was created in 1873 by Christopher Shole and marked the introduction of the 'QWERTY keyboard.' While the keyboard only used capital letters, other models provided the ability to use both lowercase and uppercase letters by the late 18..

Continue Reading

When will the Crazy Horse Memorial be completed?

Korczak Ziolkowski began sculpting the mountain on June 3, 1948. When finished, the carving is expected to be 563 feet high and 641 long. Crazy Horse's head is 87.5 feet high and his horse's head is 219 feet high.\nThe Crazy Horse Memorial is not a literal likeness of Chief Crazy Horse. Instead, the sculpture represents an American Indian hero and the spirit of the Lakota people. The monument sits between Hill City and Custer in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Continue Reading

When was gum invented?

Other cultures used different tree resins as gums. The ancient Greeks chewed gum from the resin of the mastic tree, while the Aztecs used a gum preparation called chicle from the latex of the rubber tree as an oral antiseptic and adhesive. Native American cultures took sap from spruce trees to make a chewing gum. The first U.S. patent for modern chewing gum was granted to William Finley Semple in 1869.

Continue Reading

What are Maidu weapons?

The bows, arrows and knives made by the Maidu people are very similar to those made by other Native American groups. The most significant difference is that Maidu weapons were generally very large. For example, Maidu bows were often 36 to 40 inches long, while Maidu knives were 5 to 6 inches long.\nThe Maidu used their weapons more often for hunting than for warfare. They used bows and arrows to hunt large game such as deer and elk, and they used knives for hunting smaller game such as rabbits and squirrels.

Continue Reading

Why was there slavery in the Southern colonies?

Between the years of 1670 and 1750, the enslaved population in the Northern colonies remained at a steady number. In the Southern colonies, the population of enslaved Africans and African Americans increased from 15 percent of the total population to almost 40 percent of the total population. The climate and geography of the Southern colonies were perfect for agriculture. Abundant rainfall and warmer weather for most of the year made it possible to produce very large crops to be sold. Cotton and tobacco became the largest, most harvested crops.\nSlave labor allowed Southern farmers to plant an..

Continue Reading

What is a Gray code?

In a given sequence of integers from 0 to 2^N - 1, expressed as a binary string of N length where consecutive terms vary by 1 bit position, the series of integers can be traversed by inverting one bit at a time. This is referred to as the "adjacency property" of a Gray code. Some of the practical applications of a Gray code include solving the tower of Hanoi and baguenaudier.

Continue Reading

Why did early civilizations develop in Mesopotamia?

The Tigris-Euphrates river system, where Mesopotamia started, was an area prone to frequent flooding. The flooding deposited valuable silt onto the land and enabled crops to be grown and harvested in surplus. This was the first time farmers had an excess of what they needed. The surrounding land was devoid of most other raw materials, such as wood, stone and metal. To get these materials, the early Mesopotamians resorted to trade. At these gathering hubs, people began constructing buildings, which formed the basis for the first cities to appear and helped civilizations continue to develop.

Continue Reading
Showing 5621 to 5630 of 8554 (856 Pages)